Sunday, January 12, 2014

Any trip to China, would involve some trips to restaurants. Last September, when I visited my family in Manchurian Shenyang, I had a memorable lunch in a restaurant in the style of traditional rural Manchuria, from food to decor, sophisticated imitation of the rustic, though obviously not authentic, perhaps all for the best.

The enormous restaurant had four stories, and was equipped with spacious dining halls and quite a few private rooms, some of them furnished with tables and others just brick beds and the diners must sit cross-legged.

The decoration in the hallways, dining halls and private rooms were
quite interesting, and the most unique ones were old farming tools and
artifacts from the old lifestyles:

These decorative "dishes" displayed in the hallways (below) were all actually made of stones. I didn't realize it until pointed out:

It was also very interesting to see the old styled food and the preparation area, such as those enormous woks and servers in the old styled costumes:

However, it was not so much comforting to see those animals waiting to be consumed:

I also wandered about the restaurant and saw other interesting decorations, such as these old photos from pre-Communist 1920s-30s, and perhaps even older sedan chair, shadow puppies and puppies:

The discomforting elements, though, were the souvenirs from the Culture Revolution time and other Revolutionary kitsch, such as Mao's statuettes and still photos from Revolutionary ballet - though distasteful, considering that they were part of the history and in the spirit of parody, I gave them a pass:

On my way out, people pointed out a donkey to me, an animal used to grind tofu on site. Another fanciful feature of this restaurant, which though intending to capture the spirit of rustic, in fact captured the nostalgia of the newly enriched folks, as manifested in the stretch-limousine waiting outside:
ass

The second restaurant I dined at worth mentioning was a fashionable modern place which satisfied the ever more sophisticate taste of Chinese people - clean, modern, efficient, and glittering, borderline vulgar:

The food there was quite unpretentious and delicious, though the fish tanks in the booking area looked rather menacing:

Before I left, I noticed some whimsical decorations made of plastic spoons, which was quite a delight: